InAsia
Insights and Analysis
How to Sell an Avocado on Facebook
October 28, 2020
On October 6, The Asia Foundation and the Thai Fund Foundation conducted a trial run of our new online marketing training materials with 15 community leaders. We had a lot riding on this training: these local leaders were the gateway to our target beneficiaries, small businesses in northeastern Thailand.
Much to our gratification, the training was well received. Our project, Go Digital ASEAN, which is rolling out country by country across Southeast Asia, seeks to equip small businesses, young people, and people with disabilities in rural areas with the skills and tools to take full advantage of the digital economy. The project is funded by Google.org.
In Thailand, our curriculum of online marketing, ecommerce, avoiding online fraud, and other key topics has been consolidated into five videos hosted on the Line platform under the name @godigitalasean_th. We’re encouraging small entrepreneurs to use Line’s chat function to exchange ideas, get their marketing questions answered by our marketing experts, and eventually develop an online marketplace.
The day after the successful trial, I took a long drive to visit my old friend Lakela, who recently became a full-time farmer and entrepreneur in her home village about two and a half hours from Chiang Mai. I wanted to show her our videos.
Lakela welcomed me with a big smile and showed me a small plot of land near her house where she grows organic avocados that she sells on Facebook. On another plot, about 20 minutes from her house, she grows rice and plans to grow more fruit.
“I’m a farmer, like my mom and dad, but my parents only grow rice and nuts, using the same old techniques. I need new information to expand my line of fruits,” she said. Besides rice and avocados, she has mangos, plums, guavas, peaches, and star apples. She also raises these handsome pigs.
Lakela and her friend Najoe sat down to watch some of the videos. The lessons are very practical and down-to-earth. One instructor offers tips on taking better pictures, an essential skill for selling avocados on Facebook!
A marketing expert from Bangkok talks about the four Ps— product, price, place, and promotion. But Lakela and Najoe got particularly excited by a discussion of how effective marketing needs good storytelling. Lakela’s avocados grow near the source of the Ping River. “We’ll call them Ping River Avocados,” she laughed. “No one else will be able to grow avocados like us!”
Go Digital’s online video series is full of small but important lessons like these. This is digital literacy in the broadest sense: building successful livelihoods in the new digital landscape. Our commitment is to help MSMEs and small entrepreneurs like Lakela acquire the skills they need to take full advantage of the digital economy.
Before heading back to the city, I bought two kilos of Lakela’s Ping River Avocados. They taste delicious, by the way!
1 Comment
About our blog, InAsia
InAsia is posted and distributed every other Wednesday evening, Pacific Time. If you have any questions, please send an email to [email protected].
Contact
For questions about InAsia, or for our cross-post and re-use policy, please send an email to [email protected].The Asia Foundation
465 California St., 9th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
The Latest Across Asia
Media Coverage
May 23, 2023
Program Snapshot
May 16, 2023
Program Snapshot
April 27, 2023
2023 Lotus Leadership Awards
Join us in New York on April 26, 2023, to honor Gloria Steinem, Google.org, and HAkA.
Hi AsiaFoundation,
Great initiative, this is an important approach to built literacy in both business development skills and making use of digital opportunities. I like the idea how it is also used as a strategy to deal with the impact of COVID-19 in particular for young people.
We would love to learn more of your training approaches.
Thanks for sharing this innovation.
Cheers
Martin